Peguero shows off speed, glove in Bucs' extra-inning win

ST. LOUIS -- The majority of people at Busch Stadium probably assumed that Liover Peguero had just grounded out.

With a runner on second base and no outs in the 10th inning, Peguero cued a weakly-hit ground ball off the end of his bat right at first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. At 61.1 mph, it was the fifth-weakest hit ball of the game. Peguero’s fate, off the bat, appeared to be a groundout, albeit one that advanced the go-ahead runner to third. Peguero, though, wasn’t content with a productive out.

Peguero sprinted and sprinted hard. JoJo Romero, the Cardinals' pitcher, didn’t match Peguero’s frenetic energy. Peguero was safe, and the call wasn’t close. Peguero’s sprint not only set the table for a three-run inning for the Pirates, but a 4-2 win over the Cardinals on Friday, the 62nd victory of the season that matches last season’s total with a month to spare.

“The one thing you see about our young guys is they play hard every night,” manager Derek Shelton said. “I think that’s the most important thing. Our effort is good. We’re running out balls. I think that starts with [Bryan] Reynolds and [Andrew] McCutchen. When you have your two best players and a guy who’s an icon in Pittsburgh … the young players have to do that. It was really important, and it won us the game.”

At 30.3 feet per second (30.0 feet per second is considered elite), Peguero tied his fastest sprint speed of his young career. Along with Peguero’s mad dash to first that helped create runs, the 22-year-old also flashed the leather well before extra innings to save some runs.

With two outs in the third inning and runners on first and second, Nolan Gorman flew out to shallow center field. If the ball found grass, Jordan Walker, the runner on second, would easily score while Masyn Winn, the runner on first, would have had a shot at scoring if the ball found itself in no man’s land.

Enter Peguero. The shortstop turned his back, sprinted to the outfield and made a difficult basket catch for the inning’s final out, quelling one of the Cardinals’ best chances against Mitch Keller on the evening.

“Honestly, I didn't even know if I was going to be able to get there,” Peguero said. “It was pretty far away. But I thought I had a good jump, and that's why I was able to make that catch. Right now, I'm just trying to be ready for every pitch, trying to make those things happen."

Added center fielder Jack Suwinski, “That's definitely up there. You don't see it every time. … That's so hard to do. I wish people knew how hard it was. But I at least appreciate watching it.”

With the help of Peguero’s defense, Keller recorded his fourth consecutive quality start, allowing one run (via Willson Contreras’ solo home run) across six innings on five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts. Over his past four starts, Keller has allowed five runs (four earned) across 26 innings (1.38 ERA) with 33 strikeouts to eight walks.

“I think just filling the strike zone up, attacking from pitch one, just trying to throw my pitches and execute them,” Keller said. “They were swinging early, and we were getting some good weak contact. Peguero’s play today in the third saved who knows how many runs. That would’ve been two right there, then you never know with baseball what’s going to happen next.”